Palonia Wood

[treeguy020]

Alright talk to me. Is this wood really valuable and how does one find a source that will buy it. The reason I am asking is because I am removing one tomorrow. So help me out.

 

[Mike Cantolina]

It's valuable. I don't know about finding a buyer though. Especially for one tree.



"In 1972, a Japanese walnut-log buyer happened to find what looked like paulownia growing along Virginia's Skyline Drive. He took samples of the wood, flowers, and leaves back to Japan for analysis and discovered that the American tree was just as good as Japanese paulownias. A lucrative new export industry sprang up overnight. High quality lumber from a single mature tree can bring as much as $20,000 from Japanese customers."

quoted from this site: http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/biology/plants/tree/paulowni.html


Mike

 

[Tree Machine]

It's Paulownia. They say it's a prized wood, but I have never seen the specie on a rack in an exotic hardwood lumber store. It's very fast growing which tells me the wood will not be very dense. Actually, teak is very fast growing and is as dense as they come. Skip that last comment as I don't know what I'm talking about.

Paulownia tends to rate right next to Ailanthus (sumac, stinktree)as far as tree guys are concerned. Sends out a LOT of seed and can become an invasive specie. It's originally from Asia (China). I'm not familiar with the milled lumber, but I learned of it while researching how to propagate it by means other than seed.

I think if you have a lumberable log (24" diameter or better), bring it home and do some more research. You can sell just about anything on e-bay. Get it milled and learn about it firsthand. Here are a couple links: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/p/pautom/pautom1.html This may be a better link, http://www.paulownia.org/directory.html#grower. like Mike says, I doubt you will find a buyer for a single log unless it's something really extraordinary.

 

[Mike Cantolina]

I found this also. Note it's dated 1992

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/for56/for56.htm


Mike

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've taken a few, and none of them had better then 4:1 ring density, most were near 3:1. I don't think any of them were clear.

Pretty grain though, so it must be like walnut, you need several hundred logs to get an A veneer, where the "real" money is.

 

[Tree Machine]

you need several hundred logs to get an A veneer, where the "real" money is.

You mean several hundred 'rings'?


From the looks of this table, it would have to be a pretty dang big log to fetch you a price worth your time. An 8 year old log for 8 bucks (1992 prices).

1/2 " (1.25 cm) wide annual rings. That's laying down a lot of wood in a growing season. Is this tree leguminous?

I've never seen the wood, though I am intrigued.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

You mean several hundred 'rings'?

No, i mean that the grade A value is due to the rareity of desirable timber. Most of the wood is box grade at best, so a clear log brings a very high value.

I downt thing there is any wood that has 300:1 ring density